nb: The chapter title is a Babylon 5 reference.
It was Friday, just two weeks into fall semester and Harry was putting together his lesson plan for Sunday's dueling club when Lavender came racing down the stairs from the girls dorms. "The Ministry has fallen! I was just listening to the Wireless, and an emergency message came through – Voldemort and his supporters have attacked the ministry!" She stopped in the middle of the room, at a loss as to what to do next. "It's all over."
Harry dropped his quill and ran out the door. Neville usually studied (or more accurately, 'studied') in the library with Daphne. When he got to the stairs he jumped on to the banister and slid down like a firsty. "Don't do that! You could fall to your death," somebody yelled after him, but Harry ignored them. He slammed through the library doors."Neville!" He yelled.
"No yelling!" The librarian replied, getting up from behind her desk, but Harry was long gone. He found his brother where he expected him. "Voldemort's taken the Ministry!"
Neville glanced at Daphne before looking back at Harry, "So, you think we need to go, to search for.." They had talked about this over the summer. Except… Neville glanced back at his girlfriend. He didn't want to leave Daphne.
"Yeah, grab your go bag."
"Hold on a moment. What's going on?" Daphne demanded, holding Neville's arm in a tight grip.
Neville glanced back and forth between Harry and Daphne. When Harry didn't say anything, he explained, "Voldemort has magic anchors that keep him from dying. We were going to go look for them after we graduated, but now... I don't think we have time. We have to go do it now."
"Can't you leave it the adults?"
"What adults? I don't even know who's left on our side. Besides, we know more about them than anybody else. We spent all summer researching Voldemort." Harry interrupted. He took a deep breath to collect his wits. He had been running on automatic since Lavender came down. Truth was, he didn't want to leave Hogwarts either. "Mom is going to kill us for dropping out, but we have to go."
Neville's eyes got huge. "You can't go – if you drop out, the marriage contract will activate!"
Both boys stopped, not certain how to proceed. Harry had been planning to tell Ginny about the marriage contract, but he hadn't done it yet. So what was he to do?
"I'll go." Daphne stood up and started to calmly collect her things.
"What?" Harry.
"Neville is good with a wand, but he's going to need somebody with a cool head on her shoulders to help. And I have connections in places that the two of you don't. Neville and I will go look for these soul anchors, and you stay here." Daphne pulled Neville towards the door before pausing, " And tell Ginny what she's getting herself into."
"Do you have your stuff together?" Neville asked.
"No, but I travel light. I'll be ready in half an hour. Where should I meet you?"
"Out by the Whomping Willow."
\*/
[[flashback]]
Ron was again standing at Minister Scrigemour's side as he shook hands with a never-ending stream of people. Some of them wanted something, but most just wanted the Minister to see their faces. It was incredibly boring, but Ron did his best to pay attention to the people and not zone out – he had to make a good impression. If things went well at the reception, the Minister had promised to have one of the Aurors start teaching him advanced combat.
Ron turned to scan the function hall – they were in one of the top levels of the Ministry building, but the numerous windows were still all fake – they were ensorcelled to show blue sky with fluffy white clouds drifting, as if the room was high up in the air and not twenty feet underground.
Ron was just turning to a waiter to grab whatever she had on her tray when there was a deep gong sound followed by the sizzling crackle of spell fire.
Ron froze. Before he could decide what to do, a hand grabbed his bicep, "Weasley, come with me!" Ron turned in terror to see James Potter grasping his arm as he turned to bark orders. "Sirius, see what's going on. I'll take the Boy Who Lived to the safe room."
Ron was half dragged / half ran as he followed after the senior Auror. As they reached the door, spells started flashing through the far side of the room. Ron was too shell shocked to process what was gong on. He wasn't certain who was fighting room.
James pulled Ron out of the function hall, firing a spell behind him that filled the area with smoke. The sound of spell fire did not diminish. As they exited, they saw flashes of light down a cross-corridor. James cast a Protego and pulled Ron across the intersection quickly. "This looks a lot worse than I thought. Follow close behind me. This way." James changed direction and headed to the Auror department. The corridors in this direction were mostly empty, as all the Aurors on duty were behind them, fighting off the invasion.
They were almost to the duty room when the two of them stumbled across a pair of robed men in Death Eater masks. James Stupefied one before he could get his bearing, but the other managed to get a spell off before being stunned. James turned to push Ron into the Auror duty room – the center of operations for the Auror department, only to find the teen collapsed on the floor, holding his arm. The rogue spell must have smashed into it. "Here, grab this!" He held out a piece of leather, shaped like a bookmark.
"What?" Ron staggered
"It's a portkey. This is one of the few places in the Ministry that the wards will allow you to portkey out of. Now take it. We'll fix your arm once we get out of here." The sound of fighting was getting louder. Ron swallowed and grabbed hold.
With a swirl of colors, the two disappeared just before a team of Death Eaters ran in, wands drawn.
\*/
[[now]]
As Harry and Neville raced into the chaos of the Gryffindor common room they almost slammed into Dennis Creevey being accompanied out by Snape, of all people.
"What's going on?" Harry stopped to ask. Neville paused momentarily but then pushed through to run upstairs to get his go bag.
"I just spoke to Mr. Creevey's parents, and they have decided that they would like to withdraw their son immediately." Snape replied severely. He didn't mention who had initiated the conversation. "Given that he is a muggle-born, and that his brother was involved in the situation at the Ministry two years ago, it is for the best." Dennis was almost shaking with terror. Snape pushed him through the portrait hole and turned to follow him. But before he did, he hissed quietly, "Potter, I advise you and your brother to exercise discretion – this school will be under new administration shortly, and your father is a known Auror."
"When?"
"Within the hour," and closed the door behind him.
Harry turned back to the Gryffindor dorms, which were a chaotic jumble as everybody was talking, trying to find out what was going on, trying to process what little they did know.
"Harry, have you seen Ron?" Hermione ran up to ask. Harry shook his head no, but before he could say anything more Neville pushed back through the crowd, a messenger bag slung against his torso. "What was Snape doing here?"
"Nothing to do with us. But you need to go. Now!" As they ran back out onto the grounds Harry asked. "You have the two way mirror we used in Fifth year? Message me whenever you need anything. I'll get the Rangers together and we'll come running if you need us. You're not alone in this."
"I know."
"Go. And don't get side tracked by your girlfriend," Harry punched his brother in the shoulder.
Neville just rolled his eyes. "And you stay safe. Hogwarts is going to be a target too."
They waited nervously in the shadow of a large oak. First one minute trickled by, then another. Harry could feel the sweat drying on his back when suddenly he saw somebody running towards them. His wand was in his hand before he recognized Daphne, an incongruous muggle backpack slung over one shoulder.
"It's a present from Tracy," she explained self-consciously, not waiting for the question, "I crammed it with everything I could think of."
"We'll buy anything we're missing," Neville replied as Harry poked the Whomping Willow, freezing it in place.
"Stay safe," Harry hugged his brother and then (awkwardly) Daphne.
The two ran into the tunnel.
\*/
It was just a few minutes after Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room that all the students were called to a middle-of-the-night assembly in the Great Hall.
As the Gryffindors tromped down with trepidation, they were joined by the other three houses. Nobody was certain what was going on.
In the Great Hall they were greeted by the sight of several unknown wizards and witches standing next to Severous Snape at the front of the room. Once all of the students had entered, Headmaster Snape addressed the crowd.
"As you may have heard, earlier tonight certain rebellious elements with ties to a notorious pedophile ring were purged from the Ministry, and the Dark Lord has declared martial law until such time as he can bring stability to Wizarding England."
"To that end, the new Hogwarts board of trustees has decided to station security wizards here to protect the school from seditious elements. Classes will proceed as before, but curfews will be strictly enforced, and all club activities are suspended until further notice."
Snape slowly scanned across the students. Most looked confused and nervous, though some of the Slytherin students sported big grins. "Additionally, expect some changes in faculty to be announced shortly."
There were more nervous mutters.
"Dismissed."
Snape watched the students filter back to their dorms.
\*/
"So, what now?" It was late, but most of the Gryffindors were still awake, talking in small groups. Harry was sitting with Ginny, Nigel Wolpert and Hermione. Nigel was one of the Fifth year Dueling club members, and very talented – he was better than some of the sixth years.
"Now we need to keep all of the muggle-born safe," Harry replied, "Did you see the way the Slytherins were grinning? Things are going to get bad, and I don't think the new administration will do much to stop them." Harry got along well with Snape, but that just went to show how much the new headmaster played favorites, because he treated all other Gryffindors abysmally.
"I wish we could talk to the other Ranger," Hermione sighed, but when they had walked into the dorm, one of the new 'security wizards' had stationed himself outside the door.
"The what now?" asked Nigel.
"It's what we call the advanced dueling club group." Harry replied, "Come to think of it, we can get some of the more skilled Dueling Club members to help as well. What do you think, Ginny?" Harry turned to his girlfriend, who had been unusually quiet, staring down at a wadded up doily from the end table.
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. It's just I'm worried about Ron. We don't even know what happened at the Ministry."
Harry nodded, not certain what to say to give comfort. After a moment, Ginny glanced over to the corner where Lavender and a small group of others were glued to the Wizarding Wireless that she had brought down from her dorm. "I'll go ask Lavender," She added without much hope as she got up. The Wireless had abruptly stopped reporting the news and switched to playing classical music, so there was little hope of information there.
"Well, for my part, I'm willing to play knight errant" Nigel replied with false cheer.
Harry glanced at the fourth member of the group. "Hey, Hermione." She had lapsed into silence, staring off into the distance as the enormity of what had happened finally overwhelmed her. He reached out to the muggle-born girl, rubbing her back. "We here for you. We won't let anything happen to you."
Hermione leaned over and grasped Harry in a tight hug as all the fears that she was repressing boiled to the surface. After a moment, she pushed herself back, "Sorry. I didn't mean to do that." Though it had felt good. Too good.
"It's ok. You're only human," Ginny replied half heartedly as she returned. Unsurprisingly, Lavender hadn't heard anything.
Hermione nodded, pulling herself back together."We're going to need a way to communicate amongst ourselves. I'm going to charm some galleons with the Protean charm so that we can send text messages to each other," Hermione knew the best way to avoid worrying was to keep busy.
"I'll help, if you need anything" Harry volunteered.
It was almost 1 am when Harry finally went to bed, and even then he didn't get much sleep that night, staring at the ceiling and worrying about everything that could go wrong, for Neville, for Hermione, even himself.
\*/
The following day dawned like any other. Except for being exhausted due to lack of sleep, everything felt normal. Harry staggered down to breakfast in time to snag some eggs before continuing on to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
The class all sat in their assigned seats, as usual. But when the start of class bell rang, there was still no Dawlish. "You think he's sick?" asked Terry.
"Maybe he's dead." This came in a whisper from Draco, who looked a little nauseous at the idea. Joking about people dying was very different from the reality. He had a sudden flashback to last year, when he had gone up to kill Dumbledore, only to be stopped by the Boy-Who-Lived. For the first time in his life he felt a surge of gratitude towards Ron.
"Um.. Lets give him five more minutes and then leave," Ernie Macmillan volunteered.
After the allotted time, the students got up and milled about. Some stayed and chatted while others headed back for their dorms.
"Ernie, Terry," Harry called the two boys over. "Are you still Rangers?"
"Always."
"Now more than ever!"
"Good. I don't know how much we'll be able to meet, But when we do, I expect we'll need to stay out of sight." He handed the two boys a pair of coins and a handful of maps and to give out out to trusted Housemates. "I made some notes showing where the secret passages in Hogwarts are – use them if you need to get to Slytherin's cavern."
"When?"
"Give them a week to get complacent. Let's shoot for Saturday afternoon at 4. The coins are charmed to convey messages, so we can use those if we want to change the time."
"You got it, Entil'Zha."
Harry nodded. "One more thing, don't call me that in public – I don't know if the Death Eaters are still upset about last year."
As the boys left, Harry sighed. He was going to have to drop quidditch in order to keep a lower profile, but with what was going on he found he didn't much want to keep playing.
\*/
When Harry walked into the Gryffindor Common room, Lavender ran over, looking distraught. "Harry, I was listening to the Wizarding Wireless, and they announced that all Muggle-born children would be taken from their parents and given to Pureblood families to be raised!" She stopped, at a complete loss. "They're taking babies away from their parents!"
Harry patted her back awkwardly and went to go find the Dueling Club members. Ten minutes later, he stood up on a chair at the front of the room "Gryffindors! I know that the news we are hearing is just getting worse and worse. I don't know what we can do about it right now, but I do know that we need to keep each other safe. I want all students to go about the school in pairs for safety. I spoke to the Dueling Club members, and they will escort the younger muggle-born students to their classes and the Great Hall."
"Are there even classes? The Defense professor disappeared," called out one of the fifth years.
Harry shrugged, "I don't know. But lets try to keep the school running as much as we can." If for no other reason than the sense normalcy it would provide.
"As long as it's safe to do so!" Ginny interjected as Harry got down from the chair.
"Yes. Safety first." Harry paused and added as an aside to his girlfriend, "And keep a broom handy. If you don't have one, steal one from the Quidditch locker room and shrink it so you can carry it with you at all time."
Ginny nodded, "I'll tell all the Rangers to do that."
The rest of the day passed more typically. All of the teachers were on edge, but they did their best to run their classes like normal. They would have loved to provide reassurances to their students, but they had none to give.
That evening rumors of 'Snatchers' (as the wizards who were sent out to take muggle-born from their families were called) were all over the school. The firsties were seeing them in every shadow. And the security wizards didn't provide any comfort – most spent their time sneering at the children, or (some of them) ogling the older girls.
Harry made his way from table to table, telling the other houses what Gryffindor was doing to keep their students safe. His plans weren't much, but they were something, and they helped tamp down on the panic that had begun to fester.
\*/
The only bright spot in Harry's week was, surprisingly, Potions. Like the other professors, Slughorn did his best to ignore the world outside of the school and concentrated on teaching - in his usual jovial, overly-chummy fashion - but being a Slytherin made him more skilled at pulling it off.
"Harry, your potions are excellent as always. Would you mind coming in after dinner for a bit to help me prepare the materials for the second year class?" Slughorn asked as he not-so-subtly tried to steer Harry towards a career in potions.
Much to his surprise, Harry found himself agreeing. Working with Slughorn was kind of fun, and with the foundation that Snape had hammered (more like chiseled) into his brain, he found the work pretty easy, though somewhat tedious. But keeping busy helped him manage his stress about everything that was going on.
He had gotten one letter from his mother saying 'we're ok. Don't worry.'
And nothing else.
So of course he worried.
\*/
Harry adjusted his fathers invisibility cloak – he was trying to wear it under his regular clothes, so that he would always have it available. 'Ok, let's see how this works.' It was Friday evening, well after curfew, but he wanted to try out a few things without the other Rangers watching. Which is why he had snuck down to Slytherins cave (he had used the portkey from the boys bathroom, so he hadn't even had to use the invisibility cloak as yet).
He took out the stone from Dumbledore's ring and he held it in his hand. He had always felt a connection with it, and he had an inkling for how it should work based on the Tales, but… he was instantly surrounded by an army of ghosts. 'Wicked! It really does work like the Resurrection Stone!'
In the tales, Cadmus used it to talk to dead people, but why would anybody want to do that? That was something only old people would be interested in. Instead Harry had asked for any nameless dead that were willing to come. He didn't know if this was the real thing or an excellent fake, but it didn't really matter. Harry took off on his broom, and the ghosts flew at his side, creating a gray glistening sphere around him. He could see out, but nobody could see exactly where he was inside it. 'I wonder if I really am the Master of Death?' It sounded too pretentious to be real – there was no way that he was going to bring it up with the others. But the 'ghost screen' was cool.
'Maybe I should try this out with the other... except Hermione will freak out.'
Or not. He didn't want to worry his friends by using some unknown magic – they already had enough to deal with, especially Hermione. They were all very tightly wound nowadays.
And Snape had canceled Hogsmeade weekends, so there wasn't even anyplace for them to go to blow off some steam. 'I should take Ginny on a date, just around the castle, to make up for it.'
\*/
It was the following week, at breakfast, that Headmaster Snape stood up and called the school to attention.
"We will be having some new faculty starting today. Professor Amycus Carrow will be teaching the Dark Arts, and Professor Alecto Carrow will take over Muggle studies." Snape returned to his seat without waiting for a response from the student body.
Harry exchanged a glance with his friends, "The Carrows are Death Eaters. Dad arrested them last year for helping shelter Bellatrix."
"You should watch yourself," Ginny clutched tight to Harry's arm. Taking risks yourself was one thing, but having somebody you loved be in danger was completely different. It roiled her stomach in fear in a way nothing else ever had. She had to keep Harry safe!
"Maybe if we are disruptive enough in class, they won't be able to do whatever nefarious deeds they are planning," Hermione volunteered, biting her lip. Harry gave her an incredulous look, "Yes, I know! I hate it, but you know they aren't going to teach, or if they do it won't be anything that decent people should want to learn!"
Harry nodded and gave her an encouraging smile, "Well, we can give it a shot. Just don't get caught." He thought about making a joke about it, but decided that it wouldn't be appropriate.
\*/
On the way to the new Dark Arts class, Harry saw a couple of fourth year Slytherins talking to a second year Hufflepuff. As he came closer, he saw that the Slytherins were taking stuff out of the younger boy's bag. One Slytherin had hold of text book and was dangling it by a couple of pages.
Harry looked around – there were other students passing by, but they shifted to looking at the ground as they passed.
"Wait here," Harry said to the muggle-born first year that he was walking to his class. "Incarcerous!" Harry hit both Slytherins with the over-powered spell, letting the ropes pull them together into a single bundle. The Hufflepuff used the opportunity to scoop up his things and run.
As Harry crouched down next to the two boys, one of them blustered, "You better let me go, Potter, or you're going to get it. I have seventh year friends!"
Harry gave a twisted of his wand and the ropes tightened so much that the boys could barely breath, much less talk. He leaned in so he could whisper quietly. "If I ever catch you doing something like this again, I will kill you." He looked at first one boy, and then the other, "and don't even think about telling the teachers. I also have friends, if anything happens to me, they will cut your balls off." Several passing students gaped at the display, but they couldn't hear what was said.
Harry stood up and walked back over to the Gryffindor firsty, whose eyes were shining with unadulterated hero worship. "Come on, kid. And don't you tell anybody about this either – I don't want a detention."
\*/
The meeting of the Order of the Phoenix was smaller and more tense than before. The group was meeting in the Weasley's ramshackle kitchen, and only a dozen members had showed up. "I call this meeting to order. We have a lot to discuss" Lily Potter stood at the head of the table, "I know things have gotten a lot worse and a lot scarier, but our mission is still the same."
"How's that?" Amos Diggory replied despondently. "We don't have the Ministry nor do we have Albus. So what do we do if we find Death Eaters?"
"Finding Death Eaters is not going to be a problem anymore. What we have to do is work on stopping them. We need to protect the muggle-born witches and wizards. Either get them into hiding or help them get out of the country. We need to rally any allies we can – I expect there are many wizards that don't support Voldemort's pureblood agenda, but just don't know what they can do about it. We also need to figure out the prophesy."
"Ron is alive?" Amos asked, a spark of hope kindling in his voice.
"Yes. My husband has him in a safe place. I just received word this morning." Lily was an Auror's wife and was in the habit of not revealing any secrets unless she absolutely had to.
Several members exchanged smiles. This was the first piece of good news in a while.
"Remus, Arthur, I want you reaching out to wizards in your respective communities. If you need help, don't be shy – ask other members to assist you." The two nodded. Lily turned to her former professor, "Minerva, please work with Hagrid to reach out to the giants and see if you can get them to stay neutral."
McGonagall pursed her lips, "I'm not certain that will work – Hagrid already tried that last year, and the results were not promising. And with the current atmosphere at the school, I am not certain how much we will be able to do – Voldemort's lick-spittles are watching everybody."
Lily sighed, taking it under advisement, "Then stay safe, and try to keep the children safe."
"I will try, though I have to say that your sons are up to something." Lily nodded – Neville had owled her a vague letter with his plan. She was not happy that he had dropped out, but under the circumstances, she understood. "I am especially concerned about the one who is still at Hogwarts - Harry has been organizing the students."
"They're not doing anything dangerous?" Asked Arthur, thinking of his daughter.
"No, just common sense things, like walking in pairs and watching over the younger students."
Lily smiled, repressing a small swelling of pride until she got home and had the time to dwell on it. "Lets get back to business. Amos, can you reach out to your friends in the Irish Ministry and see if you can get them to pledge assistance"
The meeting continued, but the mood had lightened significantly.
\*/
Ginny stood under the shower. Quidditch practice had just ended, but it just wasn't the same without Harry there. And what was Harry doing anyway? She was his girlfriend, and she wasn't certain. He kept going around, chatting up the other Gryffindors and sometimes students from the other houses. And most of the time he wasn't even talking about Ranger stuff, though he did plenty of that as well.
And he spent hours talking to Neville. She got that – family was important. But it would be nice if he made a little more time for his girlfriend!
Ginny turned off the water and threw on her robes, still half wet. 'Well, I don't need him to go flying!'
\*/
Ron paced the warehouse safe house. James had gone off to talk to his contact in the French Ministry, and he had to stay inside the building when the Auror was away. 'I can't just sit around doing nothing!' He had spent the first couple of weeks moping in bed. Partly he had been recovering from the bone breaker curse – it had smashed his arm badly. He still couldn't straighten it all the way – but partly it was the shock of his whole world toppling down. The Ministry was gone. It hadn't been able to stand up to Voldemort.
'I guess Harry was right – I need to take care of this myself.' He still remembered all the details that he had worked out with Dumbledore about the Horcruxes. He could go and find them himself.
Decision made, Ron felt better immediately. He went to the hidden room and grabbed the emergency broom that he had seen James use.
He knew which direction England was from here, and this was the narrowest part of the Channel – he could easily fly across.
\*/
It was early October when Harry's two-way mirror buzzed. It was already 10 O'clock at night, so he was able to make his excuses to go the boys bathroom. Once inside, he cast Muffliato over the stall. "Yes? Are you ok?"
"So far. We're with the Creeveys, at their house, and we're surrounded by a dozen Snatchers. Daphne jury rigged some wards, but they aren't going to hold out for long." Neville said without preamble. "Is there anything you can do?"
"Yes. You hold on, I'm coming."
Neville frowned, he didn't want his brother to get hurt doing something stupid. But he did need help. With a nod, he gave Harry the address and signed off.
Harry ran out of the bathroom. "Dean, Ginny, get the Rangers together – we need to help Neville."
"What's going on?" This was from Lavender.
"I'll explain when we get back. In the meantime, cover for us if anybody comes asking."
Moments later Hermione, Ginny and Dean had joined Harry.
"Where are we going?" Hermione had her charmed galleon out to message Ernie and Terry.
"You have your brooms?"
Everybody nodded, though Hermione did swallow nervously. She still hated flying, though she was much better at it now. 'But if Harry needs help, there's no other choice.'
"Then we're going out the window. We'll meet at the Whomping Willow."
Minutes later the four Gryffindors where met by the remaining two Rangers. "So what's the plan?"
\*/
A half dozen Snatchers were standing in the middle of the street, shooting spells at the nondescript little house in front of them as they tried to bring down the wards through brute force. They had set up muggle repelling charms, so they were in no rush – they could see that the wards were sloppy and weren't going to last much longer. And there were another pair of Snatchers in the back, in case the parents tried to sneak the kid out the the back door.
"Let's give it a couple of Bombardas and see if that does it!" The leader cheerfully commanded.
"Hows-about whoever takes the ward down gets free drinks at the next pub," was the reply.
"Why is there a ward here in the first places? I thought the parents were muggles!" This snatcher was dressed in a leather jacket and had a scar that made him look scary, but his voice was high pitched and quavering.
"Even muggles can buy a cheap ward stone." Replied another with a shrug, scratching his three day stubble. "I call dibs on the mom."
"Ew. Who wants an old hag like her!"
"Eh, not all mothers are as old as yours," replied the one with the stubble.
He was just lifting his wand to cast another spell when there a flash of light and a bang and the one in the biker jacket went pinwheeling to land in a tree. Stubble had the presence of mind to cast Protego as a moment later more flashes of light hit the other Snatchers, Stupefying them.
His Protego lasted just long enough for him to see a dark figure swooping towards him before multiple spells hit his feeble shield spell and sent him flying as well.
Harry swooped back up and around to the back of the house, where Terry had both Snatchers tied up with ropes.
Harry gave him a thumbs up and messaged Neville.
The door to the house opened and Neville came out, followed by Daphne and the Creeveys.
"Thank you so much," the father pumped Harry's hand, "I can't can't thank you enough. But I have to go now – out flight leaves in less than an hour!"
They piled into the family SUV and peeled out of the driveway like the devil was after them, driving straight over one of the unconscious Snatchers.
"So what happened?" Harry asked.
"It's a long story, but we were trying to retrace some of Voldemort's steps, from the Pensive memories, when we ran into the Creeveys. They invited us over for dinner."
"Harry, we don't have time to talk. We need to get back before we're missed!" Hermione pointed out. She understood that Harry wanted to catch up with his brother, but they had to stay focused - every minute that they were out here the risk of them getting caught increased.
"First we need to memory charm the snatchers," Daphne interjected.
"Right. Next time, we need to use disguises!" Hermione agreed.
Minutes later, the Rangers all apparated back to Hogsmeade, leaving the street empty save for Neville and Daphne and the unconscious Snatchers. "So where to next, love?"
Daphne sighed, "I don't know. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be." This was not the romantic adventure she had expected. It was boring and dirty and deeply frustrating. And it's not like her family would be so bad off, under the new regime… She pushed that thought away, "How about we try the Riddle manor again, and see if we missed something?"
And then they disapparated as well with a pair of faint pops.
\*/
"That was awesome!" Dean caroled as the Gryffindors settled into their common room, having snuck back into the castle. Dean was explaining to Lavender (and others) what had transpired.
"Yeah," Harry chewed on his lip pensively. "But we need more people."
Hermione nodded, "But I don't think most of the Dueling Club is quite up to this."
"So we only recruit the best. There are several that have good potential." The two were sitting off to one side, as neither was comfortable with the celebratory mood that was emanating from Dean.
"Harry, it sounds like you're planning to have more of these… escapades!" Ginny interrupted as she sat down on the arm of Harry's easy chair, waving her hand when words failed her.
"Yeah. We need to do something to fight back."
"No, we don't! I don't like the idea of you doing this sort of dangerous stuff!"
Harry frowned, puzzled, "But you've always been fine with doing stuff that was risky."
"That was when I was younger! But I'm grown up now." People were starting to look their way as Ginny was not one to keep her voice down.
Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Look, if you're not comfortable, you don't have to come. You can be in charge of protecting the muggle-born here at Hogwarts. You know, that would actually be a better use for the senior Dueling Club members as well."
Ginny sighed. Harry just wasn't getting it. She was terrified that he would get killed, like Collin. "Fine. As long as you help train them." Maybe he would forget about going on adventures if he had responsibilities here at home.
\*/
"We need to do something," Sirius sighed as he threw himself onto the couch. He was staying at the Potter house while he recovered. Since Lily had placed their house under the Fidelis charm, it was safer than going home. And he was still stiff from the injuries he had sustained at the Ministry, so it was nice to have somebody to help out. 'I'm not as young as I used to be.'
Emmeline rolled her eyes. "We've all heard this song before, Sirius."
"And yet nobody wants to do anything." The three of them – Sirius, Emmeline and Lily – had just returned from another Order meeting. It had dragged on most of the evening. Lily had made her excuses as soon as they got back and went to get some work done, but Sirius had snagged a beer and was sitting in the living room with Emmeline. "All they want to do is watch. We need to take direct action."
"Like what?" Snapped the middle aged woman, "Do you have a plan, or are you just bitching and moaning, like you always do?"
Sirius massaged his temples. The only problem with staying at the Potters was that his ex (well, one of them) was hiding out here as well.
"Look, I know I'm not a planner."
Emmeline snorted at the understatement,
"But we have to do something. Some of these new proclamations are so extreme that people will come out to support us if they see that we're doing something."
"Oh, I don't know, the ban on muggle-born getting a job without a special work permit is going to be pretty popular with the Purebloods – they have been bitching about how the muggle-born are taking jobs away from them for years." Emmeline perched on the arm of an easy chair across from Sirius. If Lily had been in the room she would have asked her friend to stop destroying her furniture, but she was in her garden, composing a letter to James who was still in France trying to find the Boy Who Lived (with the help of several Aurors from the French Ministry).
"And what about Squib women being taken to be used as 'comfort women'? All Purebloods have a squib in the closet."
"That's exactly it. They're in the closet. If they protest, then it might come out."
"But that doesn't mean they're happy about it."
Emmeline didn't have a good response to that, so she stood up. "I'm going to make some tea. Do you want some?"
\*/
"Mr. Potter, can you please stay after class" Amycus pronounced as he released the others from his Dark Arts class - he had been teaching them how to cast the Fiendfyre spell.
"Yes, Professor?" Harry carefully packed all his school supplies into his bag, using that motion to palm his wand with his left hand. He then left the book bag on his desk and approached the teacher's desk, his hands clasped respectfully in front of him.
Whenever Harry had to deal with this snake, he always maintained 100% awareness, keeping himself ready to defend himself.
"I heard some students recently saying that you left the school grounds without authorization a week ago. What do you have to say for yourself, young man?" Amycus smiled poisonously. He knew that Potter was just as rotten as his father, organizing the students and undermining the true order. Now, a little pressure, and he would either crumble or start blustering, which would give him the excuse to expel the trouble maker.
Harry whipped his hands apart, revealing the wand in his right hand. "Oblivious". The spell hit the professor dead center, and Amycus Carrow sat down in confusion. Harry knew from experience that without any further input, the spell would simply erase the past hour of the man's memory. 'Third time I've had to do this. Those stupid fourth year girls keep gossiping!' At least he was predictable, always asking Harry to stay after class to confront him.
\*/
Ron smeared more dirt on his clothes (not that they were clean to begin with) and hunched his shoulders to make himself look less tall. He hobbled out of the alley that he had been hiding in, psyching himself up, and into the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside he went right through to the back door, like it was routine. He kept his head down but he could see between his dangling hair that the place was almost empty.
Once through the tavern and into Diagon Ally he tried his best to imitate a hobo. Acting like this was completely foreign to him – before, he had always tried to appear better off than he was, but almost dying had a way of changing your priorities. And honestly, he didn't looks so good right now anyway - that flight across the channel had been brutal. He had barely made it across, shivering and exhausted.
He cautiously peered around. Diagon Ally was also almost empty, and several stores were boarded up, abandoned.
At one end of the street a pair of wizards with red arm bands emblazoned with a dark mark were checking the identification of passersby.
'Now what?' Ron was never a planner. He had Hermione for that. He had assumed that he would be able to find a Death Eater, like Malfoy, and trick him into telling him where at least one of the Horcrux was. But there was nobody here.
As he was standing there, at a loss, an elderly woman quickly walked by, not even glancing at him. But as she did she pressed a sickle into his hand.
'I guess I do look like a bum.' Ron shuffled towards a boarded up shop and sat down behind an empty barrel that had been left behind next to it, to wait for the Death Eater Militia (or whatever they were) to finish checking papers go away.
The barrel smelled like people had been using it as an impromptu trash barrel, but Ron was so tired that he found himself dozing off anyways.
\*/
It was a few weeks later that Harry had a brainstorm. He had been sitting in the new Muggle Studies class, listening to Alecto rant about how filthy muggles were, describing them as monkeys and worse, when he started writing furiously, which earned him one of Alecto's blubbery smiles as she assumed that he was taking notes.
(Which was unnecessary, of course. Since she had no training in teaching, she had been covering the same material over and over. Harry could have recited her venomous screed by heart).
That evening, as the Rangers gathered in the Room of Requirements (They had switched to using that for most of their meeting. Slytherin's cave, aka the Chamber of Secrets, was nice for training, but it was too difficult to get access to), Harry grinned eagerly at them. "I have an idea for what we can do next. My dad is always complaining how he can't raid the Malfoy mansion, as the are too well connected. So I was thinking, why don't we do that?"
"Because It's probably full of Death eaters. It's a stupid idea," Terry replied. The group sat around a small conference table the Room had helpfully provided.
"Malfoy does brag all the time about how his family is connected to the new government," Hermione added, half apologetically.
Harry deflated, "Oh. Well, what about raiding the Zambini's? They're pretty dark as well - I bet they have tons of dark artifacts - but they aren't so connected so they are less likely to be hosting Death Eaters."
"They also live in an apartment," Ginny replied. "His mother's most recent husband died under mysterious circumstances last year, and the estate is still in litigation." After a brief pause, she added, "she's a skank."
"Oh." Harry looked even more despondent, "How do you know all this?"
"How could I not? Blaise hits on anything with breasts, and his idea of flirting is talking non-stop about himself."
Harry looked questioningly at Hermione who nodded her agreement before adding, "What about the Parkinsons? Their smaller fish, so their house is less likely to be guarded."
"They're definitely dark, but their socially on the outs, that's why Pansy so desperate to hook up with Draco," Ernie agreed, his excitement building. "So how do we do this? Do we want to bring in any of the new recruits?"
They had recently started 'Ranger training' for several additional members, including Seamus, Susan Bones, Michael Corner and Lavender Brown (of all people).
"Let's keep this small." Harry considered, "How about two teams – me and Hermione, and Dean with Terry. That way there's less chance of being noticed," And each team would have somebody really smart to puzzle out any wards, "And the rest of you, cover for us! I am tired of having to Obliviate Amycus – It's been four times now!"
"We're going to need at least a week to organize & get supplies," Hermione added.
"And we need to have a time when there's likely not to be anybody home," Harry interjected as he scratched his chin in thought.
"We could go during the day, when they're at work." Hermione rested her chin on her hands as she cogitated. "Except we have class as well, so that would be tricky to coordinate."
"And I'm not certain if Pansy's mother has a job." Harry replied glumly. It was starting to sound like this wasn't going to work.
"Wait!" Ginny sat up suddenly, "The Parkinson's have a vacation cottage. I remember Pansy going on about how they spend all summer there. But I don't think they use it during the winter." She gave Harry a look. She didn't like what he was planning to do - it tied her insides up in knots - but he was her boyfriend, so she was going to support him.
"Ok, Let's plan on going next Sunday."
"That's right before Midterms!" Terry balked.
"Do you think our grades will matter at all, with the way things are going?"
Terry's shoulder's slumped. "I guess".
\*/
"Ah! My brain hurts!" Neville moaned.
Daphne walked over and rubbed his shoulders. "Maybe we should take a break – we aren't even certain it's there."
"No, it is. We managed to find that reference to a LeStrange vault, back in 1845." The two teens were in the Daily Prophet archives, digging through old papers, look for any mention of the LeStrange or Malfoy Gringotts vault numbers. It turned out that not only did the Daily Prophet store copies of their own newspaper going back to the early 1800's, it also purchased and cached competitor's newspapers. Even with shrinking charms, the newspapers filled a vast, subterranean labyrinth under the main Daily Prophet building.
And admission was free to any accredited researcher. Right now, Neville and Daphne were graduate students from the Australian Magical University, in Canberra, researching British wizarding finance. Fortunately, the lone guard (Paul, an elderly gentleman who had taken the post after retiring from the Aurors in 1974) was remarkably lax in checking credentials.
Currently, they were the only ones here, though periodically other researches would pass through. None were interested in chatting – there was just too much work to do.
"Even so, we should take a break," Daphne smiled, trying to be encouraging despite the futility of what they were doing. 'I sacrificed my final year of Hogwarts to go on this quixotic quest!' There was no way that they would ever be able to find any of these Horcruxes. There were just too many places to look, and not enough time. 'I wonder what Tracy is doing?'
Neville smiled up at her, "Your probably right, Daph. I need a fresh mind for this. You want to apparate to Starbucks and get some coffee?"
Daphne resisted the impulse to lean down and kiss her boyfriend. They were in public. She sighed, Maybe it was worth it – as an heiress, she didn't really need Hogwarts, and she was so much happier now that she didn't have to deal with Slytherin politics. "Ok. Let me just tell Paul that we're taking lunch."
\*/
The four teens landed outside the gate to the Parkinson mansion "This is a *cottage*?" Dean asked.
"Shh! Let me check it for wards," Terry got to work. The 'vacation cottage' stood in the middle of nowhere. While the building itself was not terribly large – just three stories, and without any wings or additions – the grounds were huge, and that didn't include the fact that closest neighbor was several miles away, with space expansion charms making it seem even further.
They waited quietly as a small powdering of snow fell. It was cold enough not to melt, but nothing like Hogwarts in January. It was clear that nobody had been here for a while, as everything was covered in a layer of unbroken snow. Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself. 'What am I even doing here? I'm a student, not some story-book adventurer.' But Harry had asked, and she couldn't say no to him. She cast a quick glance in his direction. They hadn't talked much since school began, and she wasn't certain what to do about that. She still hadn't really apologized for what had happened last year, and she felt awful about it. Though it would help if she herself knew what had happened. 'Why did I freak out like that?'
"I think I got it!" Terry was using a ward breaker stone that he had mail ordered. He put it down on the ground off to one side of the gates and slowly rotated it until it gave a chime.
"The ward is down," confirmed Harry – with his vision, he could see the dark spot in the shimmer that was the ward. "Duck down and go through here, and then over the wall." He showed the way through.
The teens climbed over the wall and then approached the house. "Once inside, Dean and Terry take the downstairs, Hermione and I will take the second floor. Whoever is done first will go to the third floor."
"So what are we looking for?"
"Any notes that might tell us what the Death Eaters are planning. Any Dark artifacts we don't want the Parkinsons to have, stuff like that."
"And grab any books that look interesting," added Hermione.
Five minutes later, the two groups were rummaging through the house. Going through the bedrooms was remarkably uninformative. Harry checked the sock drawers, to see if there were any secret letter hidden there (in the mystery books that he'd read, that's where people always hid stuff), but these only had socks.
Hermione was working the other side of the room, examining the huge assortment of makeup and perfumes and skin care lotions covering almost the entirety of the six foot long dresser.
"There's nothing here." The whole experience was slightly surreal – here she was, rummaging through somebody else's toiletries. And the items in question looked like they came from another planet – she didn't even know what most of them were! It was nothing she had ever expected to do in her life.
'Though maybe I should ask Lavender to teach me.' She glanced self-consciously at Harry. She knew that she shouldn't, but she was finding it harder and harder not to. Especially when they were working closely together.
Several minutes later, as she was finishing up going through the dresses, Harry called out from down the hall: "I think I found their study."
Hermione came to join him. Here there was a small room with a huge desk, the top of which was bare of anything writing or book related. But the wood surface was polished so much that it almost glowed. A bookshelf stood to one side, with just a handful of books on it. Calling this a 'study' was a misnomer – it clearly belonged to somebody who didn't know the meaning of the word!
Harry checked the desk for wards – there was nothing. "It's almost like nobody lives here." He started pulling out the drawers and going through the (sparse) contents.
"Oh, there was plenty on the woman's side. Maybe the father doesn't come here often?"
"Or maybe they are just really shallow people." Harry paused. "I got it!" He held up a key.
"What is it?"
"It's their Gringotts key!" Harry ran back to the bedroom and scooped up one of the hairbrushes from the woman's side. "We know that there's probably a Horcrux in the LeStrange vault. With this, Neville and Daphne can sneak in and check it out!"
Hermione took just a moment to catch on, "But Polyjuice takes months to brew!"
"Slughorn has some in his cabinet, and I can get in while I'm helping him set up the classroom for the firsties."
Harry was just about to go check the husband's side of the room when he felt a ward of some sort come down. "Crap! I think we set off an alarm!" He ran to the stairs and yelled down, "Guys we've been made! Get on your brooms and get out of here! Go out a window, not the front door!" He followed his own instructions.
As Harry burst out of the house, a pair of burly men who had been racing for the front door turned to cast at him. He wasn't certain what they were shooting at him, but they weren't stunners. Harry returned fire, providing cover for the other three as they took off.
"I'm hit!" Hermione called out as she rose past Harry – a stray spell had clipped her broom, setting it to smoldering. It still flew, but pulled to the left.
"Go! I'll cover you."
Dean and Terry didn't need any further invitation, racing out to the edge of the property and beyond. Harry and Hermione followed more slowly, with Harry fending off the attacks of the two wizards. They had mounted their own brooms and were following after, but neither was a gifted flier, so they weren't able to close in despite Hermione's reduced speed.
"Don't fly in a straight line!" Harry instructed her.
"I couldn't if I wanted to!" Hermione had to pull hard on her broom to steer, and was tiring quickly.
Harry did his best to hold back their pursuers, but there were two of them, and he had to keep them away from Hermione as well.
He swooped and cast a series of stunners, but their attackers were able to easily block those with a shield charm (They weren't good enough on a broom to just dodge, the way Harry would have). Nevertheless, all of the combatants were skilled enough so that the casting was silent, the only sound the hissing of the spells, but even that was muted by the snowfall.
Harry cut the lift on his broom, dropping straight down halfway to the ground, and casts a cutting charm up as his pursuer over flew him. His target Protego'ed again, but Harry wasn't aiming at the man. His cutter took half the bristles off of the broom, sending the attacker spiraling to the ground as he desperately tried to keep from crashing. Harry accelerate out of the way.
'How big is this anti-apparation field? I still can't apparate!' Hermione quailed. Though she wasn't certain that she had been flying in the same direction all the time.
At this rate she was going to crash. She was exhausted from fighting with her broom, and she had so much adrenaline coursing through her that any moment now she was going to make a mistake. She acquiesced to the inevitable and landed, yelling, "Harry, down!"
Harry plunged towards her. As soon as he touched down, Hermione cast a wind charm, summoning a derecho wind that tossed all the snow into the air, creating a whiteout condition as at the same time it threw their other pursuer up into the sky, buying them a few seconds.
"In here!" Hermione pointed to her little beaded bag that she had tossed under the bushes. Normally it was too small to fit more than an arm into, but she had Engorgio'ed the mouth to be big enough for Harry to climb in.
Harry didn't hesitate – he trusted Hermione to have a plan - and dove in. Hermione followed a moment later, sticking out one arm just long enough to cast a charm on the snow, smoothing the footprints, and then canceling the engorgement charm on the mouth of the bag.
"Sorry," Harry whispered as he turned around. While the bag was far bigger on the inside than on on the outside, it had never been intended to hold a person, much less two. It stretched to accommodate them, but just barely – it kept pressing them into each other. "This isn't too bad. But are you certain the expansion charms will survive if they cast a Finite Incatatum?"
"Yes, I bought this bag with the charms professionally embedded - it'll be fine." Hermione replied, her breath tickling Harry's face. "Now don't talk." Hermione squirmed around so that she would have space to move her wand arm. "Muffliato!" She cast, making it so that no sound would escape from the bag.
They both tried to shift to more comfortable positions, but it wasn't really possible. "Sorry," Hermione apologized as he bumped into Harry.
"It's ok." He shifted his feet – they were resting on something small and hard – probably the items that were actually supposed to be in the pocketbook.
"Should we cast a light spell?" Harry whispered, self consciously. He was hyper aware how closely he was pressed against Hermione.
"Better not." They waited as time crawled by.
Harry peered out through a tiny gap in the bag's mouth – he could see that the sky had darkened as the snow intensified. "Let's give it another hour, just to be on the safe side." They didn't know where their pursuers were, or if the anti-apparition ward was still up.
The bag was too warm. The air became humid as the snow on their clothes melted, soaking them and making them stick to their bodies. After a moment, Hermione added, "I'm going to take off my robes."
"Good idea." Harry waited for Hermione to finish squirming about. Even though he couldn't see anything, the idea that there was a half-naked girl in here with him was… distracting. Especially with all the adrenaline from the battle still coursing through him, making it hard to keep still. Once she was done, he started pulling his shirt off. Which was hard, as there was nothing to push off of to get leverage, and everything was sticking, He finally got it off, only for his hand to land on something soft.
"Oh, sorry!" Harry blushed luminescently.
"It's ok… you can put it back." Hermione's voice was husky.
Harry tentatively reached out again. As soon as his hand made contact with Hermione, she leaned in, pressing her breast into his hand with a moan and grabbed him for a passionate kiss.
Moments later, the rest of their clothes had come off, lost somewhere in the bag, as they pressed against each other, fueled by adrenaline and fear and repressed emotions.